The love canal disaster
From 1942 to 1953, the Hooker Chemical Company dumped about 21,000 tons of toxic chemicals on a fifteen acre piece of land south of Niagara Falls. Of these chemicals, at least 12 are well known carcinogens. In an attempt to cover it up, Hooker Chemicals capped the landfill in clay and sold it to the Niagara Falls School Board with a warning in the property deed. In the late 1970s, evidence of this disaster began to appear when individuals who lived near the area began develop illnesses such as epilepsy, asthma, migraines, an high rates of birth defects and miscarriages.
In 1978, as word started spreading about the toxic landfill, people began protesting and complaining as to why a school was built on top of such a place. Lois Gibbs, as seen in the above video, realized this toxic dump may have been the cause of her son's poor health. She started The Parent's Movement in order to help get the children away from the toxic waste since the school board initially refused to transfer her son. After the transfer was denied, she began talking to other parents and finding out that many of her neighbor's children were having health problems as well.
An aerial view of the Love Canal. Picture Source: http://www.eoearth.org/files/119801_119900/119877/300px-Love_Canal.jpg
Eventually, the state evacuated the 239 families in the area and began cleaning the toxic waste. The state put up a 10 foot fence around the area, and claimed there was no evidence of health problems outside that area - however, the community knew that more than just those 239 families had been affected. The families that lived just outside the fenced areas became angry. Many turned to public protesting - everyone from mothers and fathers and their children, to the elderly. They held prayer vigils and also carried symbolic coffins into the state capitol in protest. To end the protests, the states created a Human Services Fund to pay for the outer communities medical expenses. This did not go over well with the residents, however. They wished to be evacuated from the area as the initial 239 families.
Picture Source: http://enhs.umn.edu/current/2008studentwebsites/pubh6101/brownfields/health.html